Repelling the attack of the tainted tomatoes
Irradiation of food is an important, safe and effective tool that has been vastly underused, largely due to opposition from the organic food lobby and to government over-regulation, writes Henry I. Miller in the Chicago Tribune.
In fact, technology such as irradiation could help prevent the outbreak of food-borne disease such as Salmonella Saintpaul—which contaminated raw tomatoes and is tied to at least 160 cases of illness in 16 states, writes Miller.
Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, agrees.
"If even 50 percent of meat and poultry consumed in the United States were irradiated, the potential impact of food-borne disease would be a reduction [of] 900,000 cases and 300 deaths [a year]," he says.
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